Actress
and theatre producer Fidelis Morgan contacted me recently about her Great Aunt
Lily Horswill, who is mentioned on page 174 of Catherine W. Reilly’s “English
Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York,
1978).
Fidelis
sent me some information about her Great-Aunt, so I went on Find my Past to complete the picture:
LILLIAN
EMMA HORSWILL (1877–1944) - British
Lily was
born on 17th August 1877 in Tunnel Hill, Claines, Worcestershire, UK. Her parents were William Henry Upham Horswill,
a furniture salesman, and his wife Amy, nee Chatttaway. Lily had the following siblings: Charles H.,
b. 1865, Herbert W., b. 1867, Edith A., b. 1871, Lizzie A., b. 1875, Florence
E., b. 1881, Walter P., b. 1883 and Sydney, b.1884.
Lily’s
brother Walter, who was Fidelis’s Grandfather, served in the Army during WW1
and was badly injured during the Battle of Ypres. Fidelis knew him as a child and he never
recovered from being gassed.
In
1911, the Horswill family was living at no. 15 Warburton Road, Seaforth,
Lancashire and it seems that Lily was still living there in 1939.
Lily
died on 31st August 1944 at The Little Retreat, Great Leighs, Essex.
According
to Catherine W. Reilly, Lily Horswill published a poem entitled “Duty’s Call”
in Liverpool in 1914. I have not been able to trace a
copy of the poem and wondered if anyone could help please.
